Subscribe to this BlogSimpler forms, more student loans?
The form used by millions of college students to apply for financial aid will soon be getting easier to complete. But the effect of this change on college attendance is a little harder to sort out.
Last month, the Department of Education unveiled a simplified version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, commonly known as the FAFSA. Scheduled to debut in time for the 2010-2011 school year, it features fewer questions than the current version, more straightforward questions and the option for applicants to automatically download IRS tax data to help fill out the form.
Along with President Obama's proposal of nearly $200 billion in new scholarships and tax credits for college tuition, the FAFSA redesign, the administration hopes, will help boost college enrollment among low- and middle-income students. And Secretary of Education Arne Duncan also wants Congress to simplify the form even further.
So will more students start applying for federal aid? Not necessarily.
Many colleges already require all incoming students to complete the FAFSA regardless of their financial standing, in order for those schools to determine their own allocations of financial aid. At colleges where the FAFSA is not required, most students solicit the government for money after they realize how much that first bursar bill will read.
But the DOE estimates there are currently 1.5 million enrolled students who are most likely eligible for grants but have failed to apply. And Mark Kantrowitz, creator of the valuable financial-aid information site FinAid, thinks that the recent changes are a step in the right direction. The balky FAFSA application form, he says, has created a chilling effect keeping kids out of college. With a more accessible form, he says, applications will go up, as will enrollment, retention, and completion of college by low-income students.
Recent indicators have shown that fewer and fewer low-income students are applying to college to begin with in this economy. Even with financial aid, many are still priced out of attending. However, for those whose ability to attend college relies on the likelihood of receiving federal aid, things are looking up.
But there is one caveat. The elimination of some questions may make it easier for students to receive “undeserved” financial aid. A simpler form with fewer questions to distinguish students may make the financially stable and the financially struggling appear similar in some circumstances, suggests Kantrowitz.
DOE Secretary Duncan stressed that the government isn’t looking at increased accessibility to financial aid as a cost, but rather as an investment in our children’s futures. The question is which children’s futures we are funding.
Kantrowitz said that the balance should be tipped further towards this generous end so that financial aid no longer acts as a barrier to college admissions. “It’s a worthwhile price to pay,” he said. “You have to accept some slop.”
Well this is good news….I always had to help my kids with this application because most of the information they want is about the parents finances and I'm sure there are many kids out there that don't have parents that are giving them the information they need to fill it out……..hope this helps everyone.
I agree with Carol, Brielle, NJ, 07-09-09. You can simplify the FASFA form, but I too don't see the middle class receiving any benefit from the program. We struggle like everyone else, paycheck to paycheck. We applied on line for FASFA in 2008. We were denied any benefit shortly thereafter.
I applied for financial aid last month and i just got answer back. I have been granted 20000 dollars in student loans when my tuitions for next year cost only 8000. And now I am facing the dilemma: I can take these money that are right here and I can buy a new car, laptop, or take a vacantion; but do I want to have these 20000 plus 6000 from the past year, plus the interest, in debt? I am not sure if I will find a job right after my graduation, so I am trying be responsible about my money decisions and prevent the situation when I will be unemployed with a huge debt. But it's so hard to turn down 12000 that I don't really need.
This atricle does bring up the issue of who really needs aid? Should there be less aid for the more expensive schools? Is there anyway to cap admission prices so they stop rising? It seems that is the main issue- that tuition gets $3000 more expensive every year. How are the students who are already scraping the bottom of thier pockets suppose to pay this inflated pricetag?
Until the government streamlines the process people will continue to miss the opportunity to receive maximum add. Also I agree that the fewer questions will enable less qualified people to receive add.
If you couldn't figure out the original version of the FAFSA, then it's doubtful you even got accepted to college to begin with..
The funny thing about all of this is that it will actually hurt all of our students more than it helps.
Think about the housing bubble we just had. What drove all those prices sky-high? Easy loans. Low interest rates made borrowing so prolific that rather than 3 people bidding on a house, there were 9 people bidding on the house. More demand plus the same supply equals increasing prices.
Now, think about that in terms of tuition. We all know that tuition has been skyrocketing in the last 2 decades, increasing at rates far greater than inflation.
That's because the same rules that apply to home loans apply to tuition loans. When lending becomes prolific, more students have access to money for college. However, how many new universities are there? Few or none. So you have more applicants competing for the same number of spots. More demand, constant supply. Prices shoot up.
It's like we have a nation full of famine, grain prices are through the roof, and our government's solution is loans to people so that they can afford grain. Shouldn't we be farming more?
The answer to accessibility of college is more universities. Increasing supply to match or exceed demand to bring prices down.
More loans will do nothing more than ensure that each generation of young graduates will be even more burdened with debt than the last.
The simplier form won't make a difference. You have to be destitute to qualify. My brother lost his good-paying job at Chrysler last year. He reapplied for Financial aid with a revision to FAFSA at her college, but he was getting unemployment and severance. He had to pull his daughter out of Central State University and send her to a community college at the end of that semester: He made too mcuh money to qualify for any aid, but not enough to keep her at that school. His prospects for another job in the Detroit area soon that might pay even close to the same amount is very low.
If he didn't have so much equity in his house I would have told him to find a job in Texas and send the keys to the bank for his house in detroit, walk away from his mortgage, and then maybe he would be able to send his daughter to a Texas state university.
The form wasn't hard or confusing to begin with. Now more undeserving students will get aid because we can't answer a few questions. Give me a break people!!
The FAFSA form looked very complicated the last time I attempted to fill it out alone. I think with the changes it will be less of a hassle for students to apply and be granted loans for college. I also think this will increase the number of students applying for loans which could significantly reduce the debt most people face after graduation
Don't you hate it when the improvements come after you're done with the process! Hopefully the form will be less of a barrier to those that really need it
I'm glad they made the form easier to use but I doubt the middle-class will receive any financial benefit.
This is a great change as the old FAFSA forms were so time consuming and invasive, I could see how they could easily how they would serve as deterrents to students applying for financial aid/ college all together. As a side note, this is a very well written article; concise and focuses on an interesting point.
This is going to be very helpful, especially with the economy in recent times. Hopefully more people who need financial aid will figure out how to get it with the simpler form.
I hated filling out those FAFSA forms. I am so glad they are changing the procedure! Now it is going to be much better.
Fascinating article! My son is going off to college in the fall so this was very valuable information to learn.
Wow, I had no idea there was going to be a change. This is great since the last form was so difficult to figure out…I always had my dad do it for me.
Thanks for sending this article to us in California. It certainly is well written. However I think the FAFSA program needs improvement in few ways in the "real picture" of middle class families. Concern – if student is applying "on their own" and surviving "on their own" why does FAFSA require IRS data/PARENT INFO???